Manslaughter conviction

A quick follow-up on the woman who killed her boyfriend claiming he was threatening her life. She got pregnant and he wanted her to get an abortion. (We commented on this here.) She was convicted of manslaughter:

The case of a Calgary woman convicted of killing her boyfriend when he tried to force her to get an abortion has renewed the debate around Canada’s abortion laws days after Parliament voted down a law that would have made it illegal to coerce a woman into ending the life of her child.

But I’m not sure that this particular case does “renew the abortion debate.” Seems like the courts decided she’s guilty and that not a verdict I have any reason to question.

What I do know is that the abortion debate will continue to be renewed and renewed again because it’s the debate that never goes away. And that’s a good thing.

Comments

Replace the phrase “… he tried to force her to get an abortion …” with “… he tried to force her to kill her child … “. Then one could argue that her actions were reasonable under the circumstances. As a parent I would do exactly the same thing to anyone who made a credible threat to the life of my child. I guess we could question whether his threat was credible, but apparently it was credible to her, and he obviously intended it to be credible to her.

I think this is yet another case showing the need to recognize fetal personhood in Canadian law.